By Sagarika Jaisinghani
(Reuters) - London-listed shares rose more than 1% on Monday as retailers prepared to reopen stores following a months-long coronavirus-led lockdown, with Primark's owner pushing ahead to restart all its England shops on June 15.
Associated British Foods (L:ABF), owner of the fashion retailer, jumped 6.4% to the top of the FTSE 100 and the wider retailer index (FTNMX5370) added 0.8%.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 (FTSE) rose 1.6%, after ending May on a downbeat note on fears of a strong U.S. response to China's move to impose a national security law in Hong Kong. But global equity markets rallied on Monday as U.S. President Donald Trump made no mention of pulling out of the Phase 1 trade deal while saying his administration would begin the process of eliminating special treatment for Hong Kong.
The domestically focussed mid-cap index (FTMC) was up 1.5%, building on a strong two-month rally that has been powered by hopes the UK economy would rebound from a looming coronavirus-fuelled global recession.
"Re-opening optimism reigns supreme as markets have temporarily shelved the U.S.-China trade war escalation playbooks in favour of the bullish-for-market re-opening scripts," said Stephen Innes, markets strategist at Axicorp.
The FTSE 100 has recovered about 26% since crashing to an eight-year low in March, with battered travel (FTNMX5750) and mining (FTNMX1770) stocks posting some of the sharpest gains.
AstraZeneca (L:AZN) rose 1.4% and was among the biggest boosts to the FTSE 100 after its and U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co Inc's (N:MRK) cancer drug received a positive recommendation from the European Medicines Agency as a maintenance treatment for a form of pancreatic cancer.
But Ted Baker (L:TED) slumped 10.2%. The fashion brand said it would raise 95 million pounds ($117.84 million) through a stock issue to help it ride out the coronavirus crisis, after reporting a loss of 79.9 million pounds for the year to January.